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5 2 • r e s t a u r a n t d e v e l o p m e n t + d e s i g n • M A Y / J U N E 2 0 1 7
EBERLY
A 40-foot-long display kitchen sits
along the far wall between these two
primary spaces. It helps to separate the
two areas and adds visual energy. To cre-
ate more intimacy and interest, the team
also added a 675-square-foot English
conservatory-style study between the
dining room and bar. And they removed
ceiling panels from a section of what had
been interior space along the building's
front wall to create a new 800-square-
foot outdoor patio. Separated by a glass
wall from the study, it sits between the
front entrance to the dining room on the
left and the separate exterior entrance to
the Cedar Tavern on the right. Addi-
tional space directly behind the bar was
converted to a 900-square-foot private
dining and event room. A 3,100-square-
foot rooftop terrace, expected to open
soon, completes the operation.
"The idea was to transform the
building into what would feel a little like
the public areas of a hotel," Spencer
says. "It was designed to allow guests to
transition throughout the day and choose
their experience. Each space is its own
moment, but all are visually tied together
and have sightlines to the bar. Even if
you're in the back private-party room,
you can see into the tavern through a big
two-way mirror that we installed in the
back bar. You can have a private party
in the study or the back room, but visual
energy flows between the spaces."
Something Old, Something New
From the construction end, Dickson be-
gan with what was almost a clean slate.
"Outside of demo required to put in
the plumbing, mechanicals, HVAC, etc.,
we didn't have to do much to the exist-
ing structure," Dickson says. "It was a
vacant concrete shell — concrete floors,
walls, even ceilings — and we were able
to refurbish and use the existing win-
dows and add just a few new ones. Our
goal was to use as much of the existing
structure as possible. It was more about
finding the right layout and creatively
defining spaces than about tearing down
and building up walls."
The team's goal of using as much
as possible of the existing structure
created an interesting design challenge:
how to honor the building's midcentury
bones while playing up the original Cedar
Tavern bar's Victorian sensibilities.
Spencer embraced the challenge. "I
liked the idea of mixing the modern and
the old. That's what shaped the overall
design vision," she says. "Everything
started with the old bar. We wanted to
respect the time period that it's from
but present it in a fresh way that would
give it a new life here in Austin. But it
also had to make sense in this Post-War
building, so I ended up crossing a lot of
borders between Victorian, art nouveau
and midcentury modern. The idea was to
stay true to older materials and aesthet-
ics but to throw in some modern twists.
The more I started looking at midcentury
stuff, the more threads I found to art
nouveau and late 1800s design inspira-
tions, so it felt natural."
Examples of period mixing can be
seen throughout Eberly, from flooring to
wall coverings to furnishing and lighting.
The Cedar Tavern bar itself — construct-
ed of intricately carved mahogany, brass
and stained glass — set the tone for
materials and color selections, including
mahogany, rich saturated blue and brass.
Millwork and furniture designs in the
dining room were inspired by midcentury
modern furniture designer Kent Coffey's
work with a hint of art nouveau for soft-
ness. The glass-enclosed study, classi-
cally Victorian in style, takes a modern
turn thanks to nouveau-style steel beam
framing and concrete ceiling beams.
Custom tile flooring in the Cedar
Tavern was inspired by photos of mosaics
in buildings built in the 1800s. "The
sunburst pattern is similar to something
I saw in one of the old photos, but I gave
it larger scale and a more modern look,"
Spencer says. "I used that same ap-
proach for much of the lighting as well.
Many of the brass fixtures were salvaged
from old Navy ships, but they were
rebuilt to be different and more modern
from what they originally were."
Utilizing as much as possible of the
existing building also meant embracing
concrete in the design palette: It's used
creatively and prominently throughout.
Says Spencer, "I used to live in Barce-
lona and love Gaudí. He used concrete in
very elegant art nouveau ways, so again,
To break up the space and create intimacy, the designers added an English conservatory-style study that sits
between, and has sightlines through, the dining room and bar. Classically Victorian, it takes a modern turn
thanks to nouveau-style steel framing and concrete ceiling beams.